Foley’s Name Likely to Appear Twice on The Ballot

WATERTOWN — Republican Tom Foley received the endorsement of one faction of the Independent Party on Tuesday night. Unless the other faction disputes that endorsement, Foley’s name will appear on the ballot twice on Election Day in November.

Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was cross-endorsed by the Working Families Party and will also appear twice on the ballot in November.

“If Gov. Malloy was not allowed to be listed by the Working Families Party, I would have won the election,” Foley testified at a legislative hearing in 2013. Foley lost in 2010 by 6,404 votes. That year, the Independent Party endorsed Chester First Selectman Thomas Marsh, who received more than 17,000 votes.

After winning the endorsement with 24 votes Tuesday, Foley said he doesn’t recall making that statement and doesn’t believe the statement.

He said he thinks Marsh pulled votes from both Democrats and Republicans in 2010, adding that Marsh didn’t spend much money on the race so people really didn’t know who they were voting for. Foley said votes went to Marsh because people either didn’t like him or they didn’t like Malloy.

Trinity College Engineering Professor John Mertens challenged Foley for the endorsement Tuesday, but he wasn’t able to draw enough support from Independent Party members in attendance. He received 16 votes.

Before the vote, Mertens said he believes the Independent Party should nominate someone from its own ranks, instead of cross-endorsing another candidate.

“I’m fed up with the two-party system,” Mertens said. “Voters are too.”

He said neither candidate is talking about solutions to the problems the state faces.

The Independent Party has more than 17,000 members statewide, but two factions of the party have been fighting amongst themselves for the past few years.

That means that even though Foley received the nomination, the Danbury faction of the party could cancel it out if they nominate a different candidate. And that could ultimately cost the Independent Party automatic access to the ballot in the governor’s race.

The two factions of the party — the Danbury faction and the Waterbury faction — were in court earlier this month trying to work out their differences. They were able to reach a settlement regarding certain state Senate and state House races, but were unable to come to a conclusion about the statewide offices.

“We agreed not to agree on the statewide races,” Michael Telesca, who heads up the Waterbury faction of the party, said. “If they’re not happy with the results of tonight’s caucus they could challenge it.”

The Danbury faction of the party made some endorsements this week but is holding off on nominating a candidate in the gubernatorial election, according to an attorney for the faction’s chairman, John Dietter.

“They understand there are two candidates vying for the Independent Party nomination. The reason the Danbury faction has gone into recess at this moment is to look more in depth at the candidates before picking next week,” attorney Stephen Harding said Tuesday.

If the two factions arrive at different conclusions, the nominations will essentially cancel each other out and no gubernatorial candidate will appear on the ballot line for the Independent Party.

“We’re hoping that doesn’t happen. We’re hoping both parties will end up picking the same candidates,” Harding said.

The party has until Sept. 3 to submit its endorsement to the Secretary of the State.

Comments

(10) Archived Comments

posted by: LongJohn47 | August 20, 2014 6:58am

Here’s something else Foley said in that same testimony from March 2013: “I think the Independent Party has a new rule and they will automatically endorse the Republican candidate”.

Almost didn’t happen.

posted by: Tim McKee | August 20, 2014 7:28am

As a long time third party advocate, may i say that the claim that the Indy’s have over 15,000 registered is a crock. If some one signs up to vote and does not want to a Democrat or a Republican they write down “Independent” meaning NO PARTY.. right??

If they wrote down “Independent Party” they are part of this group, maybe,, but the vast majority DID NOT join this party.
If you have over 15,000 supporters and less than an 100 show up at an empty CVS store, what does it say? where is the platform? Does it have a real website??

The Oxymoron Party line is still available and you can stand for anything there too,

posted by: LongJohn47 | August 20, 2014 8:17am

Tim—if you don’t want to belong to a party, you’re registered as an “Unaffiliated”, not as an “Independent”. In 2012 there were over 900,000 registered Us in CT, the largest group (Dems 800k+, Rs 450k+) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Connecticut

It’s confusing, and it’s certainly possible that some/many of those who are officially “Independent” actually meant to simply say “not Democrat and not Republican” rather than to make themselves members of an official third party.

posted by: art vandelay | August 20, 2014 10:56am

It does not matter how many times Foley or Malloy’s names are on the ballot. The one I want to see is JONATHAN PELTO!

posted by: Mike Telesca | August 20, 2014 11:01am

Tim,
Those are harsh comments coming from you about the Independent Party. We are as we say Independently minded and try to fill that middle ground of political thought. We are about ballot access for candidates who wish to speak their minds freely without being told what they need to be for by the Party leadership. We want the Independent voters to decide on the merits of the candidates by our open door policy for candidates at our caucuses. We want the voters to decide if they should support the candidates by what they say themselves and not just by Party line membership. Try opening up the Green Party ( that you are Chairman of) candidate line to others and you may be pleased by the results and you just may actually get somebody elected in CT.

As you know I am the Chairman of the Independent Party of CT and our membership is a little over 17,000 right now.

posted by: Mike Telesca | August 20, 2014 11:07am

Btw, Tim yes we have a website “IndependentPartyofCT.com where we post our caucuses and we will have about 10 more caucuses around the State in the next few weeks. How many Green Party members came to your one caucus last night?

posted by: Tim McKee | August 21, 2014 3:30pm

Sorry Mike once again you are misinformed or clueless..

1. I am not the “Chairman” of the Greens - We elected Mike Derosa and two others, including a woman ,,(where are the women in you old boys club?)to leader the party.

2. Not electing Greens? Mike,,poor Mike,, city leaders in Hartford, New Haven, New London, and the First Selectperson in Windam to start,, many many others,, Mike get a clue before you bather,,

3. If you are centralist,, then state that! where in your platform does it say that?? oops no platform,, you can be far left or far right in your party..

An empty CVS with 24 to 16 votes does not compare to a National Party with over 125 elected Mayors, city and county leaders..
now you are over taken by Republicans hijacking your ballot lines!

posted by: GBear423 | August 22, 2014 5:18am

Tim McKee- you really are doing a great job of promoting your party! Who ever thought anyone could be angry with Independent Party members?? lol somebody needs a Snickers!

posted by: Mike Telesca | August 22, 2014 7:29am

Tim, I stand corrected- You are the spokesman for the Green Party, why don’t you say who you are when you start attacking another Party? As a third Party, I wish the Greens all the success in the world and you have the right to approach the ballot box however you feel is best. As a rule I do not attack other third parties and I let my membership decide who will be its candidates by voting for them at caucuses. We do not restrict who may enter our caucuses but we only allow party members to vote on the possible candidates for office.

posted by: Tim McKee | August 25, 2014 11:14am

I have no idea who a “Independent Party” member is,,and quite frankly neither do you… those writes Independent have joined with or without their permission,, thanks for hurting the third party movement by standing for nothing and letting Foley steal your line!!